


Late for Dinner

by anothercrazymom



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Gen, Mentos and soda, Mythbusters - Freeform, late, messes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 04:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothercrazymom/pseuds/anothercrazymom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miles is late getting home for dinner.  But something isn't right...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late for Dinner

Miles was late for dinner. It wasn’t really his fault-well, maybe it was. He had lost track of time sorting through the stacks of old Council of Counts records, and only realized the time when the growling of his stomach was loud enough to attract the attention of Armsman Roic.

Roic had suggested that perhaps the Archives could wait another day and that a break for dinner might be a good idea. Miles reluctantly agreed and now they were on their way home where Ma Kosti would have a wonderful meal waiting for them.

As they approached the gate to Vorkosigan House, Miles noticed a delivery truck for the local greekie food restaurant pulling away. “Roic, did Ma Kosti have the day off today?” He asked.

“I don’t think so, milord. She was there when we left the house this morning,” answered Roic.

“I wonder why someone ordered in food then,” mumbled Miles aloud.

“I wouldn’t know, milord,” answered Roic as confused as Miles was. “At least they picked a good place.” 

The gate guard peered into the car and waved them through. Miles thought he looked like he had a secret, but the groundcar didn’t stop long enough for him to ask what it was. He looked forward to seeing Ekaterin and the remembered that she wasn’t home. She had taken Nikki to visit some of his father’s relatives and wouldn’t be back until the end of the week.

Miles climbed out of the car and walked up the steps to the entrance to Vorkosigan House while Roic parked the car. He entered the main hall and looked around. Except for the sounds of the recently delivered food being organized on the table, there was no noise. In a house with five children aged six to twelve, this was highly unusual and highly suspect. 

“Welcome back, milord,” announced Armsman Derwent.

“Thank you, Derwent,” replied Miles. Continuing to look around he asked,“Where are the children?”

“They are in the kitchen, milord,” he replied.

Miles looked as confused as he felt, “The kitchen? Didn’t I just see food being delivered?”

“Yes, milord,” said Derwent. “I think you should see for yourself.”

With a sigh of resignation Miles allowed himself to be led to the kitchens, wondering what kind of trouble they could have gotten into this time.

The site that met his astonished eyes upon crossing the threshold into the kitchen rivaled the disaster that had been the bug butter fiasco. Every surface in the kitchen glistened with the sticky sheen of something having sprayed throughout the entire room. Every surface from the fifteen foot tall ceilings to the cabinets ten feet away was desperately in need of being cleaned. And all of the children were cleaning it up, supervised by the piercing glare of Ma Kosti.

He noticed the meat that he guessed was supposed to be dinner dripping a brown liquid onto the floor, and the vegetables that had once looked a bright and tasty green covered in an orange goo. He wondered what could have possibly done this much damage in such a short amount of time.

Lady Helen Vorkosigan looked up from where she had been sopping up a puddle as he entered.

“Hi, Papa,” she said quietly.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to look in his direction. “What happened?”

Lord Aral stepped forward and started, “We, kind of made a mess.”

“I can see that. How did you make this mess?” he asked.

Aral continued, “You know that holovid show, the one with all the cool experiments and explosions and things?”

Understanding began to dawn on Miles as he looked around the room again. He nodded expectantly, “Continue.”

“We wanted to know if that experiment with the soda and the candy really did what it looked like on the holovid.”

Miles looked at him. “Isn’t that the one that they say ‘Do not do this at home’?”

Aral looked at the ground, “Yes, Papa.” He continued, “But they didn’t say that about this particular experiment. They said that this one was safe to do at home.”

Miles looked at the ceiling still dripping with soda, “Indoors?”

“No,” replied Aral.

“They said to do it outdoors and away from anything that shouldn’t get sticky,” said Helen. “But we couldn’t figure out how to smuggle the containers outside without getting caught.”

“So we decided to do the experiment in the kitchen instead,” said Aral.

“And then Lizzie and Taurie and Sophie needed to help. So everyone got their own bottle and stack of candy,” continued Helen.

“And then it was really really exciting,” added six year old Sophie.

Miles could only imagine. “Go and clean yourselves up,” he said, wondering what else there was to say.

“Yes, Papa,” they said, and then filed out of the door.

Miles looked for someplace clean to sit, and failed to find anything. 

“Milord?” questioned Ma Kosti.

Miles looked at his beleaguered cook, “I am sorry they have destroyed your kitchen.”

She looked at him. “They are nothing if not your children, milord.” She looked around the room. “I believe that Armsman Rew called a cleaning service already. They should be here early tomorrow morning. I don’t know how much I will be able to prepare until after they are done.”

“I understand. I am just grateful you are willing to stay,” replied Miles.

“My boys decided to bake me a birthday cake one year when they were seven and four. That mess was almost as bad as this and I didn’t have the option to call a cleaning service. Countess Vorkosigan will be back on Friday. It will all be back to normal by then.” She looked again at the mess. “I will be here when the cleaning crew gets here tomorrow to supervise,” she said and left. 

Miles stood looking at the swinging door as his cook left.

“Milord, dinner is on the table and is starting to get cold,” said an Armsman behind Miles.

Miles turned around and headed back to the table and his dinner. He desperately hoped that Ekaterin wasn’t late.


End file.
